Her presence right now was nothing like her usual self.
If Gu Yue on an ordinary day carried the ethereal, untouched-by-the-mortal-world air of a celestial maiden, then right now she looked like a beast that had let its true nature run completely wild.
Her silver pupils reflected Arthur's faintly stunned face, tinged with a playful, condescending sort of scrutiny.
Something was wrong here.
Ninety, maybe even a hundred percent wrong.
"Gu Yue?" Arthur ventured cautiously, trying to keep his usual composure. "Come on, quit fooling around."
Gu Yue's gaze turned cold in an instant. A flicker of silver light flashed, and an invisible weight of pressure slammed down onto Arthur, making his chest tighten and his breath catch.
"Insolence. Address me as Your Majesty the Queen. I won't say it a third time." She spoke flatly. "Disrespect toward this queen comes with punishment."
Arthur paused.
He forced out a smile. "Right, um, Your Majesty, it's the middle of the night. What brings you to my room?"
Gu Yue narrowed her eyes slightly, a dangerous glint flashing through her silver pupils. "It seems you still haven't grasped the severity of the situation."
She leaned down slowly, closing the distance between them until Arthur could clearly catch the faint, cool fragrance drifting off her.
"Arthur." Her voice dropped low, carrying an odd, bewitching edge to it. "Do you know your crimes?"
Arthur was thrown completely off balance by this whole act. "What crimes could I possibly have committed?"
Gu Yue extended a slender finger and tapped lightly at his chest. "Crime the first: today, on the dance floor, you were tackled to the ground in front of everyone. A breach of decorum."
Her fingertip trailed upward, coming to rest at his lips. "Crime the second: you were kissed against your will, and yet made no attempt to resist. A dereliction of duty."
"Crime the third: instead of reflecting on your conduct afterward, you thought of nothing but stuffing your face. A loss of virtue."
Arthur looked puzzled.
"Loss of virtue?" he couldn't help but retort. "I'm not exactly some untouched maiden."
Gu Yue's gaze turned cold.
"You dare talk back? That calls for punishment!"
Her body, already leaning over him, came down completely. She was practically sprawled across him now, her silver eyes mere inches from his, her breath brushing lightly against his cheek.
"Hiss!" Arthur sucked in a sharp breath.
The next moment, his mouth was sealed shut again.
A while later, their lips finally parted.
"Still feel like talking back?"
Arthur was at a loss for words. What on earth was happening right now. He gave in with a resigned sigh. "No, I don't."
"Hm." Seeing him fold that quickly, Gu Yue blinked.
"No wonder you humans, males and females both, are so fond of doing this. So this is what makes it interesting."
She ran her tongue slowly across her lips, as though savoring the aftertaste.
She fell silent for a moment in thought.
"Was there anything else?" Arthur just wanted this to be over so Gu Yue would leave.
His Holy Lance martial soul had already started stirring restlessly, wanting to awaken on its own to defend its master and charge into battle personally.
He sincerely hoped it really was just his martial soul acting up.
"Silence. Did this queen give you permission to speak?" Gu Yue let out a cold snort. "That calls for punishment too!"
Her head dipped down again.
Their lips met once more, staying pressed together a long while before parting.
This time Arthur said nothing, simply watching quietly to see what else Gu Yue had to say.
Gu Yue thought it over for a moment, summoning her world-shaking wisdom to come up with yet another excuse.
Her world-shaking wisdom told her: use your world-shaking power.
So she let out a soft hum.
"Staying silent counts as punishment too!"
Her head dipped down yet again.
Arthur immediately lost all will to live.
This woman was simply, purely addicted.
The night deepened further, and the golden dragon king pendant on Arthur's chest gave off a faint glow.
Unfortunately, Na'er, who had long since convinced herself she'd already won, was busy savoring the memory of the sensations from the banquet, giggling foolishly to herself as she drifted through a sweet dream.
The next morning.
Just as Arthur was about to open his eyes, a pair of soft, jade-smooth hands clamped over them.
A sharp pain shot through his head, as though he'd been struck hard, leaving him dazed for a moment.
"Don't, don't open your eyes. This is all just a dream."
The next instant, the door swung open. Mu Ye strode in without a hint of restraint. "Arthur, why aren't you here yet, I've been waiting for you up on deck. Huh?"
Gu Yue, who had also only just woken up, was thrown into a panic, and it took her a beat to snap back to her senses and instantly teleport away through space.
Ordinarily, Mu Ye would never use his spiritual power to pry into Arthur's room; everyone was entitled to their privacy.
But this time, he'd already seen it with his own eyes.
Just now, Gu Yue had been sitting on his beloved disciple's bed, and though her clothes were still on, they were noticeably disheveled.
"This is bad!"
Mu Ye hurried over to check on him, his expression anxious.
"Arthur! I just warned you yesterday not to lose your innocence, and already you've gone and... huh? You didn't?"
In an instant, Mu Ye's excitement fizzled out entirely, and he pouted. "Didn't even go all the way? What a disappointment."
He grabbed the still-dazed Arthur and hauled him toward the door. "Come on, since nothing happened, let's get to training."
Mu Ye and Arthur made their way up to the deck, facing out over the ocean.
Mu Ye said, "Cultivation in the Body Sect is about pushing yourself to your absolute limit, then unlocking your body's deeper potential, digging all the way down to uncover the body's ultimate secrets."
"But given your current strength, it's going to be extremely difficult to push your body to its true limit."
Difficult didn't even begin to cover it.
At this point, the wellspring of Arthur's body could basically be said to never run dry at all.
Red Dragon: Heh heh.
"But actually, that's a good thing."
Mu Ye explained, "Why do so many Body Sect secret techniques require breaking through at the brink of death? Because dire straits are what force out a person's hidden potential and raise the human body's ceiling."
"But your body doesn't even have a visible ceiling to begin with."
"So there's no point wasting time on that. Just keep walking the Body Sect's path step by step, and you'll eventually reach that highest point regardless."
"So let's skip straight to the main event."
Mu Ye grabbed hold of Arthur, and in the blink of an eye, the two of them found themselves deep in the ocean depths.
All around them stretched boundless darkness, with only faint traces of light filtering down from the surface above.
The pressure of the water stacked up layer upon layer like mountains bearing down; an ordinary Soul King wouldn't last a single second down here.
But Arthur's body merely sank slightly before quickly adapting to the crushing pressure.
"Remember the innate secret technique I taught you? You can start cultivating now."
"For this stretch of time, you're going to cultivate while fighting soul beasts in the deep sea."
Arthur nodded. "Understood."
Mu Ye grinned and reached out a hand, grasping at the empty space before him.
"ROOOAR!"
A deafening roar echoed up from the deep sea, and an enormous deep-sea demon whale was hauled up out of the darkness.
Its body, hundreds of meters long, churned the water into massive waves, and a single swing of its huge tail fin sent the entire surrounding sea trembling.
Arthur blinked. "Is this... a hundred-thousand-year soul beast?"
"To be precise, close to a hundred thousand years." Mu Ye's voice echoed in his mind. "This is your training partner going forward."
"Try not to use that power of yours."
Arthur knew Mu Ye meant the power of the earth veins. Naturally, he had no intention of using it during training; otherwise there'd be no challenge to it at all.
"Don't worry, I won't use it unless I'm on the verge of dying."
Under Mu Ye's threat, the deep-sea demon whale understood it had no choice in the matter. Its massive body twisted violently, a flash of ferocity flickering through its pitch-black vertical pupils.
The terrifying bulk of it came charging straight at Arthur.
Arthur's eyes sharpened, and his whole body shot backward through the water at high speed, arms crossing to guard his chest as he unleashed his soul power in a wild burst.
"BOOM!"
The deep-sea demon whale collided head-on with his released soul power. The seawater instantly flash-boiled into a vacuum pocket, and the ferocious shockwave sent him flying, hurled violently backward.
"Cough-"
Arthur coughed up a mouthful of blood, but he was grinning anyway. "Now this is starting to get interesting."